Medicaid and Mortality: New Evidence from Linked Survey and Administrative Data

Sarah Miller, Norman Johnson and Laura Wherry

No 26081, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: We use large-scale federal survey data linked to administrative death records to investigate the relationship between Medicaid enrollment and mortality. Our analysis compares changes in mortality for near-elderly adults in states with and without Affordable Care Act Medicaid expansions. We identify adults most likely to benefit using survey information on socioeconomic status, citizenship status, and public program participation. We find that, prior to the ACA expansions, mortality rates across expansion and non-expansion states trended similarly, but beginning in the first year of the policy, there were significant reductions in mortality in states that opted to expand relative to non- expanders. Individuals in expansion states experienced a 0.132 percentage point decline in annual mortality, a 9.4 percent reduction over the sample mean, as a result of the Medicaid expansions. The effect is driven by a reduction in disease-related deaths and grows over time. A variety of alternative specifications, methods of inference, placebo tests, and sample definitions confirm our main result.

JEL-codes: I1 I13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-age, nep-dem, nep-hea and nep-ias
Note: EH
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (33)

Published as Sarah Miller & Norman Johnson & Laura R Wherry, 2021. "Medicaid and Mortality: New Evidence From Linked Survey and Administrative Data," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 136(3), pages 1783-1829.
Published as Sarah Miller & Norman Johnson & Laura R Wherry, 2021. "Medicaid and Mortality: New Evidence From Linked Survey and Administrative Data," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, vol 136(3), pages 1783-1829.

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Journal Article: Medicaid and Mortality: New Evidence From Linked Survey and Administrative Data* (2021)
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